5 weeks

Well 5 weeks from now I will be getting ready to drive down to Jacksonville to pick up my hubby and I am so excited about it!!! It has been such a blast here at the beach but it has been a little bittersweet. I have loved spending this time with my family but it has also been sad to not have Jonathan here with me. He has been a real trooper though making himself available on Yahoo to talk to me whenever for the most part. He is such a sweetheart!

Well the week has been great and here are just a few more pictures of some of the moments dad captured. I sadly left my camera at home so I was dependent on other people's cameras. None the less, I am slightly ready to get back home and finish getting everything ready for when Jonathan gets home.

Laura and I decorating the golf cart.

Jack and I checking out the fish.

John, mom, and I on the beach watching the lighting!

39...At the Beach!

We are in the 30's now and what better way to celebrate than being at the beach with family. We arrived here in Myrtle Beach late Saturday afternoon. We got in a round of golfshoes, a game invented by our family. Dad and I teamed up together and proved to be doing well until a tragic ending where we were robbed by Laura and Josh.

Sunday morning we got up and have the breakfast of champions: cereal of course! We went to the beach and I read some of my latest book. We attempted to get Jack involved in making sand castles but he was slightly more interested in the demolition process of the sand castle building. Regardless it was a fun morning. It was very packed at the beach but we are hoping some of that dies down today since it won't be the weekend.

Sunday late afternoon we all, but dad and Jack, ventured to the outlets to look for some good shopping deals. I made a few purchases that I was pleased with and know I will get a lot of mileage out of them. We went to a nearby restaurant called Duffy Street for dinner. When I say nearby I mean John, Lisa, mom, and I put in our name and the others drove over in our golf cart limo from the beach house. Josh and Laura decided to rent a golf cart for our trips to and from the beach. They planned on renting a 6 seater but the company delivered an 8 seater. So we literally look like we are driving around a golf cart limo. Laura and I even decorated it with fourth of July decor. Dad has unfortunately not gotten a picture of it yet. After dinner we made homemade ice cream and took it down to the beach for the fireworks off the pier.

The fireworks show was a much anticipated one because we had seen it the last time we came here and loved it. The fireworks look really neat over the ocean. Plus they had some really neat fireworks last time that we had never seen done before. They did kind of like a waterfall of fireworks down falling under the pier. It was pretty neat. However, this year the fireworks were much more anticipated because they were supposed to start at 9:30 and we didnt have any fireworks until at least 10:15. :( The fireworks were pretty though. Here is one of the shots dad got with his fancy camera.

47

We are indeed in the 40's. This week I am really excited about getting prepped to go to the beach with my family next week. It is rare that our family gets a chance to get together, much less for a vacation. We have not been on vacation as a family since the summer after I graduated high school- long time! ANyhow, it technically won't be the whole family since Jonathan won't be there and I am saddened by that. I am excited that I get to spend the week relaxing and having geniune family time for a whole week at the beach. It is a perfect vacation to have my last summer in Georgia for a while.

This week I am trying to get some major cleaning and packing done. Mama Na, Jonathan's mom, will be dogsitting for my sweet Cash next week so my mom is going to come up on Friday with the Durango to take some more stuff to put in storage at her house. Some more scheduled highlights for this week include another splash zone visit with Laura and the boys, pool time with Melanie, dinner with Bray, and lunch with Emmanuel girls Thursday afternoon, and vet appointment for Cash Friday morning.

Ok so I have been tantalizingly promising you some of the information that I have managed to dig up on Germany.
Here is the website for the elementary school that is on base. There is not a whole lot to it right now since school is not in session but feel free to browse:
http://www.mann-es.eu.dodea.edu/
This is the website for the actual base. Most of the stuff is seemingly boring to normal people but thought you might enjoy it anyhow.
http://home.mannheim.army.mil/
I was trying to put the picture in here of what might be our floor plan but it is not working very well. I will try to put it on facebook.

50

Down to the big 50!! So exciting!! YAY!!

This week I came back to Camp All American as a guest counselor and it has been fun but I know I don't have the energy to do it all summer like I used to. I had a group of 6 and 7 year old boys. They have been rowdy from day one and so much fun. Some favorite conversations:
::Playing a game where they were trying to guess Robert's favorite food::
Kyle: Pony?
Robert: Ponies are not in food, unless you are in Brazil!
::The church where camp is held is doing som remodeling and building a chapel::
Bryce: What are they doing over there?
Me: Building a chapel
Jack: What is a chapel?
Me: Kind of like a small sanctuary for church or for weddings.
Connor: Why would you want to get married at camp?
::Walking out to the pool::
Kyle: Emily, are the Beatles still alive?
Marc: Yea, my dad has their CD.
Me: Well, there ya go!

Haha! Good times. They have been a fun group. One more day to go!! Then back home to Cash! I miss him. Jonathan is doing well. Still ready to come home. We have a tentative date for departure- September 10th. So I need to see and love on all of my loved ones before then! I promised you some Germany stuff and I will deliver soon. But for now- I am heading to bed! NIght!

54

54 more days!!

This weekend has been a busy but good one. Saturday I spent with my family celebrating my grandfathers 90th year of life. He is such an amazing man and I am so grateful to have him in my life. I am going to miss that man so much when we leave. He said while I was over there he needed to have a talk with Jonathan because he wasn't supposed to be taking me away from my family- that wasn't part of the deal. He is so sweet. I love him so much. Cash jioned us there and everybody seemed to love him. Grandaddy even tolerated him in his lap when my brother-in-law abruptly delivered him to his lap without warning or notice. Haha.

Sunday morning I got up early and drove to Monroe to go to church with Tim, Jonathan's dad, and the girls. It had been a while since I had seen them. Church was good as always. One of my favorite teachers of all time is the pastor at their church and I just love to listen to him. After church we went out to lunch at a Japanese place. Jonathan was able to call and talk to Tim a little while we were there.

Cash is currently at grandma's for the week. Sunday night I drove up to the Tarulli's household to stay for a week while I visit camp for a week. Amanda happened to be coming up this weekend so it worked out pretty perfectly. It has been great visiting with her whole family. I just found a whole bunch of stuff on Germany and I will post about that soon.

56

Well as of today I get to mark it down to 8 more weeks. This weekend is going to be a busy one as well as next week. This morning I am currently relaxing with Cash before I get in the shower and spend the first part of the day when one of my best friends, Amanda- who is in town from Orlando, Fl.

After hanging out with her I am headed back to parental territory for my Grandfathers 90th birthday celebration. He is such an amazing man and I am so thankful for the impact he has had on my life.

Sunday morning I am going to go see Jonathan's dad, Tim, for father's day. Then back through Athens to see my own dad on father's day. Then back up to Amanda's house that night because I will be working at camp next week to help them out for a week. I am excited to go back and visit and hoping that some of my favorite campers are there!! Well I gotta get up and going so I can start this busy weekend! I will update as I am able next week.

57

57 days to go, we are almost down to eight weeks!! The time has flown and I could not be more grateful!!

Yesterday, I finally got up the will power to go through some of my teaching supplies that I had to clear out of the classroom and divide into what I know I will take with me and what I know I will leave behind. I still have to go through all my books because I have so many and there are so many that I know I can do without. Well I decided to go ahead and bring the first load of things that Jonathan's mom, Rena, will house in her basement for us. Yay for having family with storage space!!! :) Well I also pulled aside a few books I thought Jack might enjoy and asked Laura if she wanted to keep them for me so that they could enjoy them while I am gone. So I took those over to the their house and hung out with Laura, Jack, and Sam for a while. Then Josh got home and we all went to dinner where Jack made a boot with his chip! Haha. "I made boot!" So after dinner I came over to Rena's house and hung out with the girls. Cash was really hyper and wanted to play with Poohgen, Ashley's pug. He was running all around the living room and I am sure was seeing stars after running straight into the legs of the table a few times!

Right now I am the only one up, watching the US play Slovenia. Right now they are losing- big shocker!! ;) Maybe they will get lucky again but I kind of doubt it! Oh well. Plans for today are just to hang out with family. It is going to be a busy weekend.